The Ties That Bind
by Isabel Night
Summary: Kayura's thoughts on groups, the Warlords, and the bond that the Warlords had once shared. A revamped story that was given to me as a challenge.


Disclaimer-I do not own Kayura, Dais, Cale, Sekhmet, or Anubis. All five characters belong to their respective owners and producers.  
  
The Ties That Bind  
Isabel Night  
  
A "group," according to something the mortals call a "dictionary," is a number of persons or things gathered or classified together. With that definition out of the way, if you were to ask me as to what binds a "group" together, then I would not be able to give you an answer.  
  
Even today, I still don't completely understand the concept of a "group." I was, after all, kidnapped from my massacred clan when I was eight years old, brainwashed into Talpa's service, and trained to be "the perfect weapon." And when you're trained to be "the perfect weapon," you tend to work alone, and, eventually, come to rely only upon yourself. Thus, I never understood the concept of a "group" or the emotional ties that bind a group together.  
  
Of course, I cannot be honest with myself and say that belonging to a group makes a person weak, because if I did, then I would be lying. But if you don't believe my words, you can always ask Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet about belonging in a "group." All three Warlords, including the fourth and slain Warlord, Anubis, were about as different as day and night. They had each come from different prefectures, they each had a different personality, and they each had different opinions on just about everything. Anubis had a strong honor code that he never wavered from, Dais longed for a family, Sekhmet was tired of being an outcast and wanted somewhere to belong, and Cale longed to get rid of the loneliness that blackened his heart. When had I met all four of them together for the first time, I honestly believed that they were going to fail. Not only did each of them have four completely different personalities, but I also learned that at least two of them had never been in a stable "group" before. If two out of the four Warlords had never belonged in a stable "group" before, then how was this "group" going to survive, much less succeed?  
  
But they did succeed. Anubis, Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet surprised everyone, including myself, by becoming a "group," and, rather quickly I might add, the strongest force in the Nether Realm. Soon, this "group" became more than just four men gathered together to serve Talpa, but something stronger; something the mortals call a "brotherhood."  
  
I've heard that the bond they once shared was unbreakable, and while I believe them, you tend to hear about many other things in the Nether Realm. The story of Anubis betraying his "group" and Talpa is one hundred percent truth, though I never quite understood as to why they did not kill the Warlord of Cruelty for being a traitor. From what I have heard, when the Warlords brought Anubis back to the castle, they threw him into the dungeons. Normally, a traitor is executed on the spot when he or she has been discovered, so why did the remaining three Warlords allow Anubis to live?  
  
When Talpa was defeated for the first time and forced to retreat back to the Nether Realm, many interesting stories began circulating. One of the stories was that Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet were still holding on to a small sliver of hope that Anubis was still alive. At the time, I didn't understand; when Anubis betrayed them, he basically stated that wanted nothing to do with them. So why couldn't they just forget about him and move on with their lives?  
  
I think there were two reasons as to why the Warlords never moved on. One of the reasons was that the remaining Warlords weren't ready to just throw away a four hundred year old bond that they, including Anubis, had forged and shared together. The second reason was because Anubis never really betrayed them. It sounds crazy, but even though Anubis defied Talpa, he was still loyal to Cale, Dais, and Sekhmet. In fact, as it turned out, he had only walked away from the three remaining Warlords so he could save them. Sometimes I wonder what drives a person, mortal or immortal, to do contradictory things. I mean, how do you walk away from someone you love, and claim that by doing so, you're only trying to protect that person?  
  
In retrospect, I know that the bond the four Warlords shared had many ups, downs, joys, sorrows, and the occasional brotherly teasing, but I do not believe for one second that the bond they shared made anyone weak. When Anubis died for us, he died because he cared. And I know for a fact that Anubis was not weak. But I never understood as how a close, almost family-like bond that the Warlords had, survived and flourished in the midst of Talpa's evil. Yes, some parts of the Warlords' friendship included dark things like kidnapping, violence, and death, but amazingly, the bond was not strangled or destroyed by Talpa's darkness  
  
I'll never know for sure how that bond of friendship and brotherhood survived, but as I stand before Anubis' grave, I can only think about the incredibly strong bond that saved all of us from being completely destroyed. As I look at Anubis' headstone, I wonder if the Western Barbarians knew how right they were when they called Anubis final selfless act the ultimate act of love. I smile briefly as I read the words that are inscribed on his headstone, "Greater love has no one than this that he lay his life down for his friends."   
  
THE END  
  
NOTES:  
1. The "dictionary" that Kayura is refering to is the Copyrighted August 1995 "Webster's New World Dictionary."  
2. This quote, "Greater love has no one than this that he lay his life down for his friends," comes from "The Holy Bible: New International Version." You can find this verse in John 15:13. 


End file.
